My pioneering and viciously-opposed anti-racism crusade of several decades ago as deputy superintendent of the Rochester Community Schools is cited in an extensive and incisive Rochelle Riley column in the Sunday, June 10, 2018 Detroit Free Press about resurfacing racial discord in Rochester Hills (see link below): What happened to African Americans in 96 percent white Rochester then and is happening again–and what has happened and continues to happen to African Americans in 85 percent Detroit, America’s poorest and blackest city, where a contrived and unwarranted takeover of our city and its traditional public schools has robbed city workers of their pensions and robbed an entire generation of Detroit’s public schoolchildren of their education is a story that cries out for full disclosure.
As you can discern from Ms. Riley’s piece preceding, the more things change, the more they stay the same. My friend Detroit police detective Khary Mason is to be commended for taking up the anti-racism baton in Rochester and running with it again. Now Ms. Riley (and hopefully columnists in the other Detroit daily) will now tell the TRUE and COMPLETE story of what has happened specifically to the Detroit Public Schools and what REALLY needs to happen to restore them, as I will continue to do in future editions of the Michigan Chronicle and the Detroit Native Sun, and on my show on WCHB1340 AM on Saturday mornings live at 9:30 (call-in number is 313-837-1340) and on Monday evenings at 6:30–also to be videotaped for streaming on DetroitIPtelevision (DETipTV.com) and for placement on my Facebook page and on my website, www.AlifeontheRUN.com Further, I am planning to start a podcast marketing of my books, which recount much of Detroit’s story, that began for me at 602116th Street at McGraw in January of 1936. My books are available at The Source Booksellers at 4240 Cass Avenue (313-8321155), the Grey Wolf Scriptorium at 145 E. 14 Mile Road in Clawson (248-629-6800), Barnes & Noble book stores, and on amazon.com (type in Dr. John Telford). Signed copies can be ordered at (313) 460-8272.
– John Telford The River House 8900 E. Jefferson Suites 513/514 Detroit MI 48214
Superintendent, Madison Public Schools, 2008-2009 (fired for bringing in hundreds of Detroit students)
DPS Superintendent pro bono under state-imposed emergency financial mismanagement, 2012-2013
Detroit Public Schools Community District Poet-in-Residence, 2017 –
